There are a number of commercially available lidar systems that have primarily targeted the automotive application area. Velodyne Lidar, Inc. markets a pulsed lidar—the Velodyne-64E, which has multiple rows of light emitting laser/detector pairs which are mounted on a single axis mechanically rotating stage to provide 360° azimuthal field-of-view (FOV) using a near-IR laser beam with a wavelength of 905 nm and a narrow beamwidth of 0.09°. This prior art lidar has a limited field of view (FOV) in the second dimension of only about 27°, a range resolution of only about 80 cm, a volume greater than 8000 cm3, a relatively heavy weight of greater than 13 kg, a relatively high cost, and relatively slow mechanical scanning.
Another prior art scanning lidar module is made by Ibeo Automotive Systems—the Lux-2010. It is also a pulsed scanning lidar with a mechanically rotating mirror. Similar to the Velodyne lidar, the Ibeo module scans only in one dimension with a horizontal FOV of 110°, and a very limited vertical FOV of about 3°. Although it is more compact relative to the Velodyne system, the Ibeo lidar module is still bulky at greater than 1300 cm3 and still relatively expensive.
Another prior art lidar product is marketed by Advanced Scientific Concepts—the ADC-TigerEye 3D. Unlike the Velodyne and Ibeo lidars, the ADC lidar operates in a pulsed flash mode in contrast to scanning mode and uses pulse triggered 256×256 pixel image sensors to form 3D images. The main disadvantage of this lidar is its limited concurrent FOV and range due to its flash mode of operation. For example, for a range of 60 m, the FOV is 45°×45°, which decreases to a FOV of only 9°×9° for a 450 m range. This module, although more compact than the Velodyne lidar, is still bulky at greater than 1300 cm3 and heavy at greater than 1.5 kg.
What is needed is an improved lidar. The embodiments of the present disclosure answer these and other needs.